Human rights protection, freedom Serbia's systemic problem

BELGRADE The number of appeals Serbians filed to the European Court of Human Rights testifies to "the systemic problem concerning human rights and freedoms protection." This is according to President of the Constitutional Court of Serbia (USS) Dragisa Slijepcevic. Human rights protection, freedom Serbia's systemic problem "We need to tackle the matter and analyse the causes which primarily lead to inflation of constitutional appeals and which may end in inefficiency," Slijepcevic said during the round table debate and the presentation of the collection of ECHR decisions that cover Serbia. The USS president believes that it is up to the legislator to determine the steps which need to be carried out to reduce the number of appeals to USS which at this point totals over 13,000. Only in 2013, USS adopted over 2,500 constitutional appeals on the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and this testifies of the gravity of the problem we are facing, Slijepcevic said. He expressed the concern that ECHR's current stand states the constitutional appeal will no longer be an effective instrument if the USS decisions on payment of compensations for material and non-material damages are not implemented. The USS decisions have to be carried out, Slijepcevic said and noted that the USS sent a letter to the government with an appeal asking that damages for violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution should be paid from the budget. Acting President of the Supreme Court of Cassation Dragomir Milojevic talked about the necessity of continuous training and learning more about the ECHR practice and standards so that the ideal of rule of law could be achieved partially or completely. Assistant Minister of Justice and Public Administration and Serbia's agent in the ECHR Slavoljub Caric said that the Court adopted 14 verdicts and 7 decisions concerning the appeals filed by Serbian citizens in the period from March 2012 to March 2013. Caric noted that the Court adopted 82 such verdicts in the past nine years which are available to the public and experts on the website of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration and in the Official Gazette. He underscored that at this point, ahead of the initiation of accession talks for Serbia's EU membership, it is very important to establish the state of Serbia's judiciary in comparison to the ECHR standards. Tanjug

Human rights protection, freedom Serbia's systemic problem

"We need to tackle the matter and analyse the causes which primarily lead to inflation of constitutional appeals and which may end in inefficiency," Slijepčević said during the round table debate and the presentation of the collection of ECHR decisions that cover Serbia.

The USS president believes that it is up to the legislator to determine the steps which need to be carried out to reduce the number of appeals to USS which at this point totals over 13,000.

Only in 2013, USS adopted over 2,500 constitutional appeals on the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and this testifies of the gravity of the problem we are facing, Slijepčević said.

He expressed the concern that ECHR's current stand states the constitutional appeal will no longer be an effective instrument if the USS decisions on payment of compensations for material and non-material damages are not implemented.

The USS decisions have to be carried out, Slijepčević said and noted that the USS sent a letter to the government with an appeal asking that damages for violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution should be paid from the budget.

Acting President of the Supreme Court of Cassation Dragomir Milojevic talked about the necessity of continuous training and learning more about the ECHR practice and standards so that the ideal of rule of law could be achieved partially or completely.

Assistant Minister of Justice and Public Administration and Serbia's agent in the ECHR Slavoljub Carić said that the Court adopted 14 verdicts and 7 decisions concerning the appeals filed by Serbian citizens in the period from March 2012 to March 2013.

Carić noted that the Court adopted 82 such verdicts in the past nine years which are available to the public and experts on the website of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration and in the Official Gazette.

He underscored that at this point, ahead of the initiation of accession talks for Serbia's EU membership, it is very important to establish the state of Serbia's judiciary in comparison to the ECHR standards.